Sunday morning I had a leisurely breakfast with my host family and then headed off to the Château de Vizille about 30 minutes outside of Grenoble. Miranda gave us a bit of a tour but mostly let us explore the museum, the castle itself, and the beautiful grounds on our own.
The chateau was built between 1600 and 1619 by François de Bonne, Duc de Lesdiguières. This is apparently very quick for a whole castle to be built and so there is some type of legend about the Duke selling his soul to the devil to get it done in time. This wooden sculpture depicts some type of horse race with the devil.
On July 21, 1788, the Assembly from the Dauphiné region (around Grenoble) met in the castle's royal tennis court haha. In defiance of royal authority, they demanded a meeting of the States General, another key event in the build-up to the French Revolution.
It was and official residence for the President of France from 1924-1972.
So now they've turned a large part of the chateau into the Museum of the French Revolution. There are dozens and dozens of paintings depicting various political scenes, family portraits of royal and revolutionary individuals, and of course ornate furniture and decorations from the period. None of the paintings are incredibly famous or anything, so it was actually really interesting to see many of the same scenes from famous paintings by a different angle, with a slightly different perspective.
[This is me being a "Good Anderson Birder" and taking pictures of the ducks because maybe they're special European ducks] :)
After going through the museum, we walked around the gardens for a few hours. It was really beautiful and peaceful.
They have deer, goats, sheep, swans, peackocks, geese, and other animals.
[For those of you Fox Valley readers out there] Parts of it kind of reminded me of 1000 Islands in the springtime!
To view the rest of my photos, click below:
 |
| Chateau de Vizille |
No comments:
Post a Comment